It is 3,016 miles — literally as the crow flies — from the battlefield of Culloden where the Jacobite cause went down to defeat in 1746, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Strange to say, the open field … Continue reading
Category: Articles
Two Gentlemen from Sussex
On the face of it, there could no more different people in terms of politics and religion than Hilaire Belloc and Rudyard Kipling. Belloc, as one half of the notorious “Chesterbelloc” was one of the most powerful apologists for Catholicism … Continue reading
Bishop Strickland’s August 22 Pastoral Letter, a Gift to the Church in Advance of the Synod on Synodality
Two days ago, the website of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, posted a pastoral letter from the pen of the Most Reverend Joseph E. Strickland, the Ordinary of that Diocese. Written on the heels of a recent apostolic visitation whose … Continue reading
Farewell Summer!
August is the last month of Summer, and I must admit that I have always had a love/hate relationship with the hottest season. When I was a boy, it meant liberation from school, and that was always welcome. Latterly, it … Continue reading
An Act of State Terrorism
August 9, 2023 is the 78th anniversary of the destruction of the oldest, largest and most historic Catholic community in Japan, that of the Urakami District of Nagasaki, whose Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception lay 1,650 feet beneath the airburst … Continue reading
Triumph and the Quandary of American Conservatism
In the past few weeks, some very kind individual put all ten years’ worth of Triumph magazine online. For many reasons, this is an incredible breakthrough. In the decade of its existence (1966-1976), Triumph put out excellent work from some … Continue reading
Insanity at Marquette
The following is a Catholic Action League of Massachusetts press statement… Mr. Lonnie Brennan, Publisher of the Boston Broadside, contacted the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts seeking a comment about the decision of Marquette University in Wisconsin to offer, for a fee, “Gender Affirming Voice Therapy” … Continue reading
July Pilgrimages
Once Independence Day comes and goes, July stretches forward into seeming infinity. If you have the time and the money, it is a perfect month to take a road trip and see something of the United States, Canada, or whatever … Continue reading
The Forgotten Commandment
Dusting off this very brief article from a 1948 edition of From the Housetops, I am struck with how timely it remains. If it were written today, it would have to be updated with the more recent innovation that Charity … Continue reading
What If the Glorious Fourth Hadn’t Happened?
One of the most enjoyable if ultimately frustrating games an historian can play is “what if?” Enjoyable, because everyone has episodes of history — personal or general — he wishes had worked out differently. Frustrating, because while one can imagine … Continue reading
Bishop Athanasius Schneider on the Prohibition of the Traditional Liturgy as an ‘Abuse’
According to His Excellency, “The prohibition of the traditional Latin Mass is an abuse of ecclesiastical power and noncompliance with its prohibition does not in fact constitute disobedience.” Continue reading
What So Proudly We Hail: Flag Day in 2023
When I was a boy in Los Angeles, school opened with our pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stood, one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for … Continue reading
Bless God at All Times!
The following is the speech I gave at IHM School’s graduation yesterday. Readers should know that our school in rural southern New Hampshire is very small. We had one graduates this year (we had three last year!). HERE we are once more in the month of … Continue reading
The Grail in Summer
Memorial Day begins the American civil Summer; the Fourth of July marks its apex, and it ends on Labour Day (of course, the first Halloween decorations shall have started to appear in the stores the last week in July). Enjoyable … Continue reading
Wrestling with the Fate of the Unbaptized
“One man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Rom. 5:18). With these somber words, St. Paul expressed one of the truths that govern human history. On account of what St. John Henry Newman called the “aboriginal catastrophe”—namely, the Fall … Continue reading
